Utopian Architecture by James Boulton at Pulliam Deffenbaugh

James Boulton • painting
A 2003 Oregon Biennial artist, his style is inspired by both abstract expressionism and grafitti culture.
Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery
929 NW Flanders Portland, OR 97209 • 503.228.6665
First Thursday Opening July 6, 2006. 5:30 to 8p. Ends July 29, 2006.

Oxygen Paintings • Joe Macca
Focusing on giving breath color, Macca uses thin translucent coats of paint to meditate on moments of pleasure, pain, tension, joy, rage, etc.
PDX Contemporary Art
925 NW Flanders Street Portland, OR 97209 •
503.222.0063
First Thursday Opening July 6, 2006. 6 to 8 p.
Ends July 29, 2006.

cut corners • Avantika Bawa • installation
Bawa attempts to blur the boundaries between two and three dimension, shifting between uneasy balance and grace. Materials include discarded cardboard and piping.
Tilt Gallery and Project Space
625 NW Everett, Suite 106, Portland, OR 97209 •
908.616.5477
First Thursday Opening June 6 from 6 to 9p. Ends July 29, 2006.

Robert Calvo • painting
Calvo uses maps to guide compositions. The Gallery showing is also Cris Bruch’s large-scale wood, aluminum and paper sculptures (through July 29th 2006).
Elizabeth Leach Gallery 417 NW 9th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 • 503.224.0521
Preview Wednesday July 5th from 6 to 8 pm.
First Thursday Opening from 6 to 9 pm.

Keep Trying • Ryan Jacob Smith • painting
Smith explores personal symbolism and timely political themes, through nostalgia, idealism, irony and sentimentality.
motel gallery
19 nw 5th avenue, suite c Portland, OR 97209 • 503.222.6699
First Thursday Opening July 6, 2006 from 6:30 to 9:30p.

rad

Macca's show is really slow, subtle and beautiful also very... thurough. Still I havnt seen any hangs in the space that really take ownership from the architecht... except Bean Finneran. Then again, I dont think Macca's show which is Zen-Bhuddist in nature needed to assert itself like that.

Brad Cloepfil's art gallery designs tend to atomize the walls and create a sense of airy diffusion. Other PDX artists like Mary Henry and James Lavadour don't have an atomization or "diffuse" problem though when they show in his spaces, they are anchors in more ways than one.

Boulton's show is pretty surprising and he's grown some since moving to LA. Sure the show is a little inconsistent but the painting Utopian Architecture is worth the trip alone. It's a wierd collision of Larry Poons, Terry Winters and James Rosenquist... it solves all of the problems James' last show at PD had. I reminds me of Rem Koolhaas... Disorienting architecture that allows for distinct spatial location... to be less obstruse you you know where you are as a viewer but the idea of up, down and foreground/background seem to be comepletely up for grabs.

Nice one, it's one of the best new abstract paintings Ive seen in years. He still has a year to go on his MFA so it's good he didn't just pump out 25 very similar paintings. I see a lot of the heavy strangeness of Daniel Richter (only abstract and exploded) in many of the other works here. Maybe not as coherent as the last 3 paintings (the 2 best are owned by Bonnie Serkin and Justin Oswald) he did in Portland but Urban Architecture has some really mature flashes of brilliance. I like the guy a lot so I have to be tough on him.